Book Review: The Skinny on the Art of Persuasion by Jim Randel

Persuasion is a skill required for success in, not only business, but life in general. If you have ideas you want to get across, you need to persuade others that they are good ones. Persuasion comes in especially handy in marketing and sales, since you’re trying to persuade someone to buy from you. Jim Randel has written a book, The Skinny on the Art of Persuasion: How to Move Minds (affiliate link), which gives some great advice and insight and can be read in under an hour.

Quick & Easy Read

I like reading to increase my knowledge and to help improve various aspects of my business. Reading takes time, which means having to choose which books get read. Books that are faster to read are more likely to be chosen (depending on the subject matter), because their knowledge can be gleaned much more quickly.  Randel’s book is a super quick read, which I read it in less than hour.

Textbook-like books are dull to read and just put me to sleep. Reading shouldn’t be a chore. The Skinny on the Art of Persuasion is incredibly easy to read. Randel uses stick figures for illustrations (which are also a bit amusing) and the amount of text on each page is fairly low, which also makes it easier to digest the information on each page.

Actionable Rules & Relatable Examples

Randel teaches the art of persuasion with 15 rules, each discussed with an example. These 15 rules are easy to remember and are repeated several times throughout the book so have a pretty good chance of remembering them when you’re done.

Examples used to illustrate the rules, as well as occasions when persuasion comes in handy, are scenarios that happen in every day life. Because you can relate to the examples, you’re much more likely to remember them in conjunction with the rules.

Thumbs Up

If you’re looking for an in-depth book on persuasion, this isn’t it. But if you want a quick read that gives you some great actionable tips for improvement, I recommend reading The Skinny on the Art of Persuasion: How to Move Minds (affiliate link). Jim Randel has an entire series of “The Skinny on” books, ranging from networking and time management to real estate investment, several of which I’m likely to also read.

Have you read this book or any other in “The Skinny On” series? What do you think?

disclaimer: I wrote this review because I feel that the book has value to you. I was asked to read and review one of “The Skinny on” books of my choice, but I received no compensation other than several of the books to choose from.